The 11-year-old jockey who won the Melbourne Cup
His story has been largely lost to history, but the youngest jockey ever to win the Melbourne Cup was a “little freckled lad” from a township near Geelong who was only 11 years old.
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Ask even the most dedicated horse racing fan to name the youngest jockey to win the Melbourne Cup and they may well say Ray Neville, who rode to victory on Rimfire in 1948 at the tender age of 15.
But the truth is even more astounding.
The youngest jockey to win the Melbourne Cup was Peter St Albans on Briseis in 1876 – and he was only 11 years old.
Peter St Albans is the subject of the latest episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, available now.
Victoria Racing Club historian Andrew Lemon believes it’s time the young jockey received recognition for his astounding achievement.
“If you found an 11-year-old jockey winning the Melbourne Cup these days, it would be national headlines,” he says.
Dr Lemon says it’s a common misconception that Ray Neville holds the record as the youngest jockey after winning the Melbourne Cup at age 15.
“That was regarded as pretty amazing, but by the time Peter St Albans was 15, he’d won a Melbourne Cup and run second on two occasions.”
Part of the reason Peter St Albans’ story has been largely lost to history is the confusion surrounding his name and his family’s name.
Peter was born on November 15, 1864, at St Albans, a small township just east of Geelong.
He rode under the name Peter St Albans, but later trained under his original name, Peter Bowden.
Adding to the confusion, his parents’ surname was Bowdren, not Bowden, and at birth he was registered as Michael Bowden, though his family called him Peter.
Peter rode for the most famous stable of his day as an apprentice for successful trainer James Wilson, the Bart Cummings of his day and founder of Geelong’s St Albans Stud.
The story has also been largely forgotten because Peter St Albans’ historic win came before the arrival of celebrity culture, and jockeys, in particular, were largely anonymous.
“In the 1870s, although racing was huge and there was a huge amount of press around racing, we hadn’t developed what I call the celebrity culture of newspapers,” Dr Lemon says.
“Jockeys were often hardly mentioned at all in the Melbourne Cup.
“There’d be a lot of description about the horse itself, or the owner, the betting, the big event of everybody going to the Melbourne Cup, but there wasn’t a lot of press around the actual jockeys.”
Racegoers were unaware at the time Peter St Albans was only 11 years old, though he was often described as small.
He was once described as “the ladies’ favourite, the little freckled lad”.
Peter St Albans weighed just under 40kg when he won the Cup on Briseis on Tuesday, November 7, 1876, eight days before his 12th birthday.
Notably, the filly also won the Derby the previous Saturday and The Oaks the following Thursday, but ridden both times by senior jockey Tom Hales.
Amazingly, Peter went on to run second in two other Melbourne Cups.
Back in those days, jockeys did not have to be registered, and there was no minimum age.
“One of the myths that sometimes surrounds this Peter St Albans story was that he had to pretend he was older to be able to ride,” Dr Lemon says.
“But the fact is that in 1876 there were no rules at all about the age of a jockey.
“These days, you have to basically go to university to be a jockey, but in those days, if you could ride and the owner put you on the horse you were allowed to ride.”
For many years, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding Peter St Albans’ origins, with several distinguished authors and historians claiming he was Aboriginal.
But after researching Peter’s family history, Dr Lemon is adamant those claims are false, and the young jockey was the son of Irish immigrants.
“The reason I’ve found Peter Bowden’s story so fascinating is that it’s an example of historic elusiveness. It’s so hard to pin down the truth and the facts over a long period of time,” he says.
“But above and beyond that is that extraordinary story.
“Here’s an 11-year-old kid put onto one of the great horses of our time, Briseis … and he wins the Melbourne Cup.
“What a fantastic celebrity he would be these days, if you had a 14-year-old kid who’d won a Melbourne Cup, and run second on two occasions, wouldn’t he be the toast of the town?”
Listen to the interview with Dr Lemon in the free podcast at https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/in-black-and-white or find it on iTunes, the iPhone podcast app or Spotify by searching “In Black and White”.